Barney Frank Schools Spencer Bachus On Setting Precedent In Congress

The argument over whether Jamie Dimon should be swore in and put under oath has become an unexpectedly heated topic at Dimon's hearing before the House's Financial Services Committee today.

When Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) began his questioning of Dimon, he brought it up again and barely got to finish his sentence when Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the chair of the committee, interrupted him.

In Sept. 2009, when Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was Chairman, and he made a decision to not swear in any of the CEO of the big banks when they came in to testify about the financial crisis, Bachus explained, adding that he was simply following "protocol."

"The ranking member has said I'm doing something unusual here..." Bachus began to explain himself, not noticing that he had mixed up Frank and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who originally brought up the oath topic.

Frank immediately butted in to clarify, and added: "Not everybody from Boston talks the same."

Then, in true Barney Frank fashion, he continued for another 30 seconds—

"Mr. Chairman, I have made no comment on the swearing in... I am gratified that you are following my precedent, and I will have by tomorrow another list of precedents that you can also follow and we'd all benefit."

"Well don't get in any rush to give it to me," Bachus said in a dead-pan voice before patting Frank jokingly on the back.